Trump and Trudeau to speak on Monday over US-Canada tariffs
US president Donald Trump and Canada’s outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau are scheduled to speak on Monday after the Trump administration imposed sweeping trade tariffs on its neighbor.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday night as he flew back to Washington from Florida, APF reports Trump told reporters he would be “speaking with prime minister Trudeau tomorrow morning, and I’m also speaking with Mexico tomorrow morning.”
Canada’s Globe and Mail reports that it is not known who requested the call, noting that on Saturday Trudeau said he had been “reaching out to speak with Donald Trump” since the US president’s inauguration, but the conversation hadn’t happened.
Over the weekend, in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs, Trudeau announced a 25% tariff phased in across C$155bn ($107bn) worth of American products.
Some Canadian citizens have taken trade matters into their own hands after Trump announced the tariffs, by boycotting goods from the US.
Reuters spoke to one Calgary resident, Ken Lima-Coelho, who said “There’s nothing I can do about this quagmire that we now find ourselves in politically with the regime next door. But I can change which toothpaste I buy … and that gives us something to do while hopefully our political and business leaders sort this out.”
In January, Trudeau announced that he would stand down as Canada’s prime minister once his ruling Liberal party had appointed a new leader. Canada’s parliament has been suspended until 24 March.
Over the weekend Trump again threatened Canada, claiming that the US pays “hundreds of billions of dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada” and that “without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable country”. He reiterated his expansionist suggestion – on top of previous threats to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland – that Canada should become the 51st state of the US.
Key events
Donald Trump views Elon Musk as doing his “dirty work” in launching an unprecedented takeover of federal government operations, the Washington Post reports.
Musk, who was Trump’s top donor in the presidential campaign, has reportedly gained access to a secure system the Treasury uses to process payments, and taken over access to USAID, which he has condemned as “a criminal organization”.
While Trump has been making his own norm-shattering moves since returning to the White House, he’s given Musk a fairly long leash to accomplish his goal of transforming the federal government, according to the Post:
Trump is not closely monitoring Musk’s moves, according to people close to the president, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. But the people said Trump views Musk as doing the task he assigned him, and the president benefits from letting someone else take the heat for drastic and controversial measures. One adviser described Musk as doing “the dirty work,” noting that his public approval ratings were dropping.
One place we will see immediate impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs on the United State’s top trading partners: Wall Street.
Stock trading has not yet begun for the day, but futures indicates markets are primed for a sell off, albeit not necessarily a huge one.
The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average is down 1.3% in pre-market trading and the broad-based S&P 500 is 1.5% lower. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is 1.7% lower.
That markets have not sold off more is perhaps an indication that traders do not quite believe these tariffs will stick. We’ll see if that optimism lasts throughout the day.
Political website The Hill is this morning carrying some quotes from Democratic strategist Christy Setzer, who has expressed frustration at the tactics being employed by Democratic party representatives and senators in assisting Donald Trump in assembling his administration. She says:
Democratic leadership acts like it’s permanently 2006, a year when, yes, we took back the Senate, but also before the Republican party found a cult leader and lost its collective minds.
We don’t live in that world any more. We have a lifelong conman and convicted felon in the Oval Office who tries every day to turn this country into a dictatorship; let’s start acting like it.
That means you can’t be mad about Trump trying to freeze government spending in the morning, and vote for his Treasury secretary – who will destroy the economy – in the afternoon. Stop helping Trump.
My colleague Jon Henley has written this round-up of European reaction this morning to Donald Trump’s threat to impose trade tariffs on the European Union.
There has been some other reaction in Europe to the prospect of trade wars, with Donald Trump’s administration having imposed tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, and threatening action against the European Union.
The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said if the US and Europe started a trade war “then the one laughing on the side is China”.
“We are very interlinked. We need America, and America needs us as well,” Reuters reports she added.
Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk said any attempt at waging trade wars is a complete mistake, while Finland’s prime minister Petteri Orpo said Europe should negotiate with Trump on trade.
Trump told reporters on Sunday, reiterating complaints about a trade deficit, that “[Tariffs] will definitely happen with the European Union. I can tell you that because they’ve really taken advantage of us. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products. They take almost nothing and we take everything from them.”
USAid staff locked out of Washington HQ on Monday morning
Staff at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters on Monday, according to a notice distributed to them, the Associated Press reports.
USAid staffers said they tracked 600 employees who reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight. Those still in the system received emails in the agency system saying that “at the direction of agency leadership” the headquarters building “will be closed to agency personnel on Monday, 3 February.”
Earlier on Monday morning, during a live broadcast on the social media platform that he owns, Elon Musk said that Donald Trump had agreed “we should shut [USAid] down”. On Sunday Musk called it “a criminal organization.”
USAid was established in 1961 by president John F Kennedy, and is one of the world’s largest distributors of financial aid, handling a budget of about $50bn.
Oliver Milman
Oliver Milman reports from New York
For several years, Republicans accused Joe Biden of waging a “war on energy” even as the Untied States drilled more oil and gas than at any time in its history. Now, a more tangible assault is gathering pace under Donald Trump – aimed squarely at wind, solar and other cleaner forms of power.
In the first two weeks of his return as president, Trump has, like his first term, issued orders to open up more American land and waters for fossil fuel extraction and started the process to yank the US from the Paris climate agreement. “We will drill, baby drill,” said Trump, who has promised to cut energy and electricity prices in half within 18 months.
But Trump has this time also launched a blitzkrieg against renewable energy, with his department of interior temporarily suspending all clean energy development – but tellingly not oil and gas – on federal land.
You can read more of Oliver Milman’s report here: How Trump is targeting wind and solar energy – and delighting big oil
Trump and Trudeau to speak on Monday over US-Canada tariffs
US president Donald Trump and Canada’s outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau are scheduled to speak on Monday after the Trump administration imposed sweeping trade tariffs on its neighbor.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday night as he flew back to Washington from Florida, APF reports Trump told reporters he would be “speaking with prime minister Trudeau tomorrow morning, and I’m also speaking with Mexico tomorrow morning.”
Canada’s Globe and Mail reports that it is not known who requested the call, noting that on Saturday Trudeau said he had been “reaching out to speak with Donald Trump” since the US president’s inauguration, but the conversation hadn’t happened.
Over the weekend, in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs, Trudeau announced a 25% tariff phased in across C$155bn ($107bn) worth of American products.
Some Canadian citizens have taken trade matters into their own hands after Trump announced the tariffs, by boycotting goods from the US.
Reuters spoke to one Calgary resident, Ken Lima-Coelho, who said “There’s nothing I can do about this quagmire that we now find ourselves in politically with the regime next door. But I can change which toothpaste I buy … and that gives us something to do while hopefully our political and business leaders sort this out.”
In January, Trudeau announced that he would stand down as Canada’s prime minister once his ruling Liberal party had appointed a new leader. Canada’s parliament has been suspended until 24 March.
Over the weekend Trump again threatened Canada, claiming that the US pays “hundreds of billions of dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada” and that “without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable country”. He reiterated his expansionist suggestion – on top of previous threats to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland – that Canada should become the 51st state of the US.
ABC News reports that it has obtained an email in which the Department of Health and Human Services has directed recipients of grant funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to immediately halt all US government activities related to what it called “gender ideology.”
The news network reports that the email says:
You must immediately terminate, to the maximum extent, all programs, personnel, activities, or contracts promoting or inculcating gender ideology at every level and activity, regardless of your location or the citizenship of employees or contractors, that are supported with funds from this award.
Any vestige, remnant, or re-named piece of any gender ideology programs funded by the US government under this award are immediately, completely, and permanently terminated.
Macron: Trump’s threat of EU tariffs is pushing Europe to be stronger and more united
Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz and France’s president Macron have both given some reaction to Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, and threat to do the same to the European Union.
If Europe is attacked on commercial interests, it will have to make itself respected, Reuters reports Macron said. Recent declarations from the US were pushing Europe to be stronger and more united, he added.
Scholz said the European Union was strong enough to react to any US tariffs but “the goal should be that things result in cooperation.”
The two men were speaking ahead of an informal gathering of European leaders in Brussels.
Germany’s opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, who hopes to be chancellor after Germany’s election on 23 February, has said he hoped Trump would realise the tariffs he imposes “will not have to be paid by those who import into America. Instead, they will have to be paid for by consumers in America.”
On Sunday Trump threatened to widen the scope of his trade tariffs, repeating his warning that the EU will face levies.
European stock markets have suffered turmoil on Monday morning amid the fears of a trade war, and the impact on European companies of tariffs levied by the US on its neighbors.
Democrat senators demand Robert F Kennedy recuse himself from vaccine-related matters if confirmed
Two US senators who will vote this week on whether to advance Robert F Kennedy Jr’s nomination as the top US health official demanded on Monday that he recuse himself from all agency matters related to vaccines.
Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said that Kennedy has unscientific views about their safety and stands poised to benefit financially from such decisions.
Reuters reports the pair also asked that Kennedy, Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, pledge not to engage in lawsuits involving vaccines for at least four years after leaving office.
The Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday reiterated Denmark’s position that Greenland was “not for sale”, despite Donald Trump’s repeated suggestion that it be acquired by the US for strategic reasons.
Speaking in Brussels ahead of a European leaders meeting, Reuters reports Frederiksen as saying “Greenland is today a part of the kingdom of Denmark. It is part of our territory, and it’s not for sale.”
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said last week Trump’s interest in acquiring the island was “not a joke”.
Greenland harbours some of the largest deposits of rare-earth metals. Denmark granted the island limited self-government in 1979, 26 years after it was incorporated into the country by the Danish constitution.
NBC News has reported overnight that dozens of education department employees who attended a diversity training course during Donald Trump’s first term has president have been put on leave.
A letter to the affected employees obtained by the news network said they would continue to receive their full salaries and benefits and wouldn’t be required to do any work-related tasks.
Citing union sources, Yamiche Alcindor reported that “at least 55 employees had been placed on leave as of Friday evening.”
Sheria Smith, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents hundreds of Education Department employees, said:
It looks like they’re entrapping people, because they encouraged people to take these trainings. [They are] now maybe using these trainings as a basis to put them on administrative leave.
